It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

So it has been an interesting last couple months just trying to think through why I believe what I believe to a certain extent and also just with all that the Lord has been doing in my life….but today the Lord really encouraged me and discouraged me at the same time. First he just reinforced big time the fact that I can’t bring him any more pleasure than he already has in me and I can’t earn any better standing with my actions. But the fact that my standing is based on Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. And he has given me EVERY spiritual blessing! What a beauty that has been and somehow I have been missing that in the midst of my desire to rest in Christ completely. But it was a beautiful reminder today as well as a huge encouragement to my somewhat weary heart. But at the same time it has been kind of frustrating just hearing so many people talking about how there fear is that they won’t finish strong and that they will fail or they are just trying to make God smile with there lives. Although those phrases may sound good and cute. They are actually the very heart of legalism and take away from Christ rather than lift him high. You see when we keep being motivated by a fear of failure that produces nothing but outward change and no trust in Christ rather fear of punishment. But we have to remember phil 1:6 and gal. 2:20. Christ will complete the work!!! When we are in Christ we don’t have to worry about failure bc we are a failure. Thats what we are saying when we trust Christ. We are a failure and can’t make it on our own. But so often we want to change that after sanctification and say that now we can make ourselves winners by what we do. That is a lie and it is not of Christ! (gal. 5:8). Our hope for the future comes in Christ promising that he will do the work in us through faith. So we can sit back with no fear of failure bc we know that Christ is going to complete the work in us! What a beautiful thing, to just rest in the promise of God. And as to the making God smile comment, that is just as equally poisonous b/c hat to assumes the fact that we can bring pleasure to God with our actions and fall out of Gods pleasure with our actions. But we need to remember that we are seen through the blood of Christ and not on the basis of our works. Any joy that God finds in us is bc of the work that Christ is doing in us to glorify the Father. And that is yet again just Christ completing the work he has started in us. We need to remember that even though we are saved, any righteousness we have is still filthy, it is in the grace of God through Jesus’ death in which we have any righteousness and it is not our own but his. Although these often heard and often discussed phrases (fear of failure, making God smile, or bringing God joy) they are at there core just mans pride making its way out with the guise of humility. Christ is enough.

A Rough week

So this week has been one of the hardest weeks in my life. It was rough in more than one way. The first reason that it was tough is b/c my grandma passed away this week. So being here knowing that I would not be able to talk to or see my grandma again was a really difficult thing to come to grips with. And it was also difficult b/c when I typed up something for my dad to read for me at grandmas funeral I wasnt able to send it in time b/c I wasn’t able to connect to the Internet to send it. That was the big thing that had been keeping me kinda bummed and preoccupied. But also it has been a tough week just b/c I have been working through why I believe some of the doctrines that I do and seeing if they are biblical or not. So i have been affected by that to seeing as some of the things I have spent my whole life believing have very little biblical evidence. Not major things like salvation or sanctification or theology proper, but it is draining thinking and studying about those things. And b/c I had been thinking through those things I had been losing sight of loving Jesus first in he midst of it. So the combination of my grandmas death and being dry spiritually made for a very big struggle on my part this week. But it ended well. And I can truly say praise the Lord for what he has done at the end of it all. He has drawn me closer to him through the midst of it. He has showed me the importance of thinking through his word but keeping humble in it. (I Cor. 1:27; Luke 10:27). Also the importance of resting in Christ to be my sanctification not worrying that I need to do that myself but recognizing hat he promises to do it in me and for me. What a relief that is. I just need to rest in him and he will sanctify me. (Phil. 1:6; gal. 2:20). It’s cool to read the scripture with that view and it’s cool to remember hat while I study Christ is changing me. That is why I pray and read the word and that is why I serve. Not out of fear of failure or desire to be better but b/ Jesus is my life and my love. What a freeing fact that really will give you a desire for prayer and study of the word. If you don’t have hat view then it is just a work that I am doing to perfect myself and will continually fail at. But praise God it’s not me!

Trips to Buenos Aires

Well this past wednesday and thursday we, me and my bilingual group, went to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. We went all day both days. It was a great time and I really enjoyed not just the site seeing but the bonding time we had as a group as well. It is hard sometimes to be real close with a lot of the bilingual(PBB) guys because most of them are 2 or 3 years younger than I am. But there are several guys in the group that I have been able to connect with better and it was nice to be able to bond not just with them but the other guys as well. For the trip we went to a couple different historical sites and also we went to some tourist sites as well. The historical sites were very cool. On Wednesday we went to one of the 5 best opera houses in the world called colon theater. it has some of the best acoustics in the world. It was super beautiful and I took pictures with my ipod but it doesn’t really do it justice. After that we went to a tourist spot called Florida Street. It is a street with a bunch of shops, a bunch of stuff, and a whole lot of people. It is pretty incredible how big Buenos Aires is, its a wicked big city. That is what our Wednesday consisted of. Thursday was the long day. we were ready to leave by 7:30 but didn’t leave till 8:30ish because of logistical problems. But we returned to campus at 1 in the morning…that is a long day. In the morning we went to the Argentine congress building. It was one of the most beautiful buildings that I have ever seen in my life. While there we met a man who worked at preaching the gospel to and having bible studies with people in Congress. it was cool to see a man working with such high class people but still with the same purpose, preach Christ and him crucified! After our meeting up with that man we went to a part of Buenos Aires that was very beautiful, although it was not known for that in the past. The place we went to was called la Boca and it was famous because when immigrants came a long time back they all moved into this one sector of the city by the port. When they were building there houses they did not have enough money to paint them. so they would take the left over paint from the factories that they worked in and paint their houses with it. These left over paints were very bright colors and often there was only enough paint to finish a wall or the roof. And so they ended up with very bright and multicolored houses. Let me tell you that it was very beautiful and a nice place to spend part of our afternoon. again the pictures don’t do it justice. After dinner we went to an outdoor opera about the history of Argentina. And even though I didn’t really understand much, it was a pretty sweet act. So those were our trips to Buenos Aires in the last few days. It was good and it was long but the Lord was working in the midst of this as well and really encouraged me on the bus rides through my friend Jake. Just talking about everything doctrine, denominations, the gospel, or thinking hard about scripture, it was an encouragement to talk with him. And so the Lord is continuing to complete the work he started in me.

Sincerely,

Billy

So far in Argentina…

Well its been quite the adventure so far in Argentina. Things have been good and things have been rough but overall the Lord has definitely been working in my life. Where do I start…Well so far this has been every bit as tough as everyone has said but in a good way. it is really pushing me back to the Lord and keeping him as the center of what I do. it has been awesome in that respect to see that if I am not desiring Jesus above all else than it is a selfish purpose. and I need to have my one and only desire be Jesus and have all else flow out of that. but so far as activities go, I’ve only had a few outreach opportunities available but they have been sweet.

The first event was on the 21st of September. its called spring day here and it is basically their spring break. all the students in Argentina have the day off and they all go to parks or parties and have a “good time”. so on this day all the students at WOL went into different parts of Buenos Aires, the province not the city, and preached the gospel. it was interesting for us bilingual students (PBB) because we needed to have translators with us the whole time but it was completely awesome. just the fact that we had to rely on someone else to share the gospel was stinking humbling. but the Lord really worked in my life through that and praise God he took away a lot of my fear of man on that trip. the other outreach opportunity that I had was to go out to a town a few hours away with a group of bible institute students to put on an event called super-match. basically it is a bunch of games that we play in the park, like an obstacle course or team games that the kids can play. It impacted me because before we played the games we went out into the town and invited kids and families to come to the event. I really got to see a little bit of the culture here. because all the houses have fences or walls around them you can’t knock on the doors, so instead you stand there and clap and the people come to the gate. But it was so cool to see that the majority of the people were friendly, even though some were not friendly in the slightest. so we, a group of 30 or so students, just walked around the town for an hour inviting people and sharing the gospel. and we had a big turn out and several of the parents and kids trust Christ. It was awesome to see people recognize there need for a savior and trust in Christ to be their savior and their God! also the time in this town impacted me because of the state that the church was in. The building didn’t have a roof except for the kitchen part and a bedroom area. it was tiny too, you could barely fit the 30 people in there! but seeing the joy and thankfulness the pastor had for us coming and putting on the super-match, and the tears of joy that he had when he heard that people had trusted Christ and he could go visit them and continue sharing about Christ with them was incredible. This was a church that literally had nothing except Christ and you could see the passion that the pastor had for sharing Jesus with others…it hit me hard and I’m thankful for that.

Sorry this is so long…but I’m almost done…just wanted to share with you some of the struggles so far. It has been an awesome time of the Lord working in my life, I can’t deny that, but it has been tough as of these last couple weeks just dealing with the normal issues of missing friends and family and not being able to communicate that well with some of my closer friends here. But praise God for my roommates. The Lord has really blessed me big time with  my roommates. Two of them are from Uruguay and they both recently turned to the Lord with there lives. But they are a huge encouragement to me and they both love the Lord deeply. even though they are a bit crazy they take the time to make sure that I am doing well and correct me when I mess up and just share what they are learning.

Also I want to share with you a desire that I have to go to the Amazon for the month of December to work with New Tribes missions, that is to work with unreached people groups. but I don’t know if that will go through at all because I haven’t heard back from them yet. But I’m praying that it will. If it doesn’t the Lord has opened up opportunities to go to Chile, Paraguay, or Uruguay in the month of December. So the Lord is providing awesome opportunities to serve him and I’m thankful for that. Remember to keep your eyes on Jesus and in his word!

Sincerely,

Billy